Band of Sisters

88 minutes2012

Nuns are cool! That's the message of this informative and often inspiring documentary by Mary Fishman, who profiles more than a dozen left-leaning sisters across the U.S. Most of them are old enough to remember Vatican II, the ecumenical council that opened up the Catholic Church in 1962 and sent a generation of clergy into the streets to work for social justice; its legacy is evident in the sisters' efforts to minister to prisoners, protest on behalf of illegal immigrants, and launch affordable housing projects for the poor. One gets the unfortunate feeling that Fishman has trimmed her subject to fit a liberal agenda: there's no mention of abortion or same-sex unions, possibly because the sisters' feelings about these issues might turn out to be not so cool. But thanks to the nuns' candid and often moving personal reminiscences, this is still an eye-opening account, locating the powerful intersection of spiritual faith and feminine will.
ByJ.R. Jones